Suboxone is a brand name for a combination of two drugs, buprenorphine and naloxone. It’s most often used as part of medication-assisted treatment (MAT), a method of using opioid medications to treat opioid abuse.
Buprenorphine is an opioid drug which at low doses produces the effects of other opioid drugs. Higher doses do not increase the effects, meaning overdoses on buprenorphine are much rarer. Naloxone also blocks the effects of opioid drugs.
Administered by an oral film placed inside the cheek or under the tongue, suboxone is thought to reduce overdose deaths by nearly 50% and also helps recovering opioid abusers manage cravings and other withdrawal effects. Although suboxone abuse does occur, the drug is most often encountered in a clinical setting.
